County: Offaly Site name: TUMBEAGH BOG, Tumbeagh
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 99E0377
Author: Ellen O'Carroll, ADS Ltd.
Site type: Road - class 2 togher
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 615497m, N 729210m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.312945, -7.767439
This linear brushwood and roundwood structure varied slightly in composition along its length, as did the level of preservation. The site was a sparse arrangement of brushwood, roundwoods and twigs that lay in the centre of the bog and did not extend across to the dryland areas.
The wood comprised a roundwood, some brushwood and a small amount of twigs. The site was 0.8m wide and 60mm deep. The structure ran in an east-west direction, and the majority of the elements ran longitudinally. There was a low density of wood in the cutting. The twigs appear to have been used as packing between some of the brushwood. Bark was present on over 90% of the wood. There was some root found in the cutting, and it is possible that this root disturbed the site. The wood was not very well preserved, as it lay in fen peat. There was no evidence of pegs, but one of the roundwoods was cut to a chisel point at one end.
It was traced for 28m and was preserved to a greater degree at the eastern end of the site. This site probably did not function as a togher as the dispersed arrangement of wood could not have supported the average person's weight. The wood may have acted as a guide or routeway across an area where it was safe to walk.
Windsor House, 11 Fairview Strand, Fairview, Dublin 3
